Laundering machine



July 31, 1934. M. TROY 1,968,233

LAUNDERING MACHINE Filed Nov. 17, 1931 Patented July 31, 1934 UHTED STATES LAUNDERING MACHINE Max Troy, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor to General Linen Supply & Laundry 00., Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 17, 1931, Serial No.575,517

2 Claims.

My present invention relates to laundry machines, and more particularly to a fiat work ironer, and aims to provide certain improvements therein, and constitutes an improvement over the invention disclosed in my abandoned copending application, Serial No. 568,721, filed October 14, 1931.

In power and steam laundry practice, flat work ironers are employed for simultaneously drying and ironing flat work, such as sheets, pillow cases, towels, handkerchiefs, etc. These ironers usually consist of one or more canvas covered rolls mounted in spaced, parallel relation over a steam chest, between which latter and the rolls, the articles to be ironed are fed in damp condition and are dried and ironed as they pass through the machine.

Flat work reaching these laundries is gathered up from various sources, such as hotels, barber 1 shops, homes, etc., and frequently has adhering thereto foreign matter, such as sawdust, hair, etc., which, if not entirely freed from the laundry in the washing operation; has atendency to adhere to the canvas covering of the rolls,

1 from which it is occasionally picked up by other articles which are subsequently passed through the ironers. Also, the articles to be ironed, and which arefed to the. ironer in'darnp condition, have a tendency to adhere to the rotating rolls,

i and to overcome this, various mechanical means have heretofore been resorted to. may be enumerated the provision of fingers or scrapers disposed at the rear of each roll for disengaging the articles from the roll, spaced threads or bands disposed in belt-like fashion around the battery of rolls and which effect disengagement of the articles by compelling them to progressively move under the threads or bands and traveling webs or aprons which carry the articles progressively around a plurality-of rolls. These methods of effecting disengagement are unsatisfactory for various reasons: (1) the fingers of scrapers frequently catch and tear the articles; (2) they do considerable damage to both the articles and the roll covers should the latter become partially separated from a roll; (3)

the belt-like threads and bands leave their im-' prints on the ironed articles, which is particularly objectionable on fine table linen, aprons and the like; (4) the belt-like threads and bands repeatedly break and require repairing. In the case of the threads this is accomplished while the machine is in operation but introduces manyknots in the threads, which leave their imprint on the articles being ironed. In the case of a Among these band breaking, the machine must be stopped and the ends of the band secured together by suitable clips and a special tool; and (5) in all devices employing mechanical means for causing disengagement of the articles from the rolls it is necessary to dismantle said mechanical, means when it becomes necessary to recover a roll. This operation usually takes fifteen minutes or more, during which time the machine operatives are usually idle.

According to my present inventionI overcome the aforementioned objections inherent in prior devices. This I'accomplishfby blowing jets or streams of air downwardly against the rear of the rolls, the saidjets being caused to issue forth from suitable pipes disposed in spaced parallel relation to the rolls, said pipes bein'g'free from protuberances which would interfere with the recovering of the rolls. 1 also prefer to use preheated air for thispurpose since it increasesthe moisture evap-. oration of the articles being ironed and dissipates the moisture from the rolls, thereby greatly expediting the ironing operation. y

The invention also embodies other features of novelty which will be apparent from the detailed description which follows, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein V y y Figure 1 is a fractional longitudinal section through a fiat work ironer embodying my invention, said section being taken substantially along the plane of the line 1-1 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a partial top plan of the device shown in Fig. 1. Figs. '3, 4 and 5 are enlarged transversesections of the air discharge means disposed at the rear of the rolls.

Flat work ironers in use in power and steam laundries are of various types. They invariably comprise at least one roll for cooperative action with a steam chest, or a second roll disposed in tangential relation to the first. The present invention, it is to be understood, has general application to any laundering machine employing a rotating roll, and by way of example I have shown it as applied to a fiat work ironer which comprises a battery of spaced apart, parallelly-extending rolls A, each having a canvas covering a which usually has three convolutions extending around the roll, said rolls being mounted on suitable shafts a supported in bearings a Disposed beneath the rolls A for cooperative engagement therewith is a steam chest B having troughs or cradles 12 within which the rolls A seat, and connecting bridges 12 between said troughs and which provide a support for the articles being ironed in passing from one roll to the next succeeding roll. In the use of these fiat work ironers, the article to be ironed, such as a sheet C, is fed in damp condition upon a feed apron D, which may be in the form of an endless belt traveling around a plurality of rolls (1 from which apron the article is carried onto the steam chest and under the first roll, and after passing thereunder it progressively passes between the succeeding rolls and the steam chest, in the course of which movement it is dried and ironed.

To increase the efficiency of these flatworl ironers and to expedite the ironing operations accomplished thereby, and to provide additional. features of novelty, I dispose at the rear of. each roll, means for directing air streams downwardly against the rear of the roll'sbelow the axes thereof and somewhat above the surface contact engagement of the rolls with the pressing surface or top of the steam chest. Preferably the air streams which are directed against the: rear of the rolls are caused to impinge upon the rollsin. a substantially tangential direction, although the angularity with which these. air streams impinge upon the rolls may be varied as commercial use and tests may dictate. The air streams impinging upon the rolls function: toeffect disengagement from therolls of thearticles being ironed thereby, and which, because of their damp condition, have a tendency to firmly adhere to the canvas covering of the rolls.. Saidair streams also function to disengage. any foreign matter, such as sawdust, hair and thelike, which. may attacha itself to. the roll, from the articles being ironed. said foreign matter,. upon disengagement'from the rolls, being carried off by the. suction. or exhaust which is appliedto. a hood (notshown). which usually encloses the machine: Said air streams also function to dissipate. the moisture from the rolls and increase the moisture. evaporation of the articles being ironed.

The means which I employ for directing the streams of airagainst. the rolls. arev preferably in the nature of pipesEextending in. parallel spaced relation to. the axes of. the roll a-nd preferably below the horizontal plane of said axes. These pipes have longitudinally spaced apart openings therein which. are-so disposed with relation to-the pipe and. the rollsthat the. air jetsissui-ng through said; openings will impingethe rolls in a substan-' tially tangential direction and preferably slightly above-thesurface contact engagementof the rolls with the pressing surfaces of the steam chest sothat said streams may spread in fan-like fashion below said-points of impingement. The discharge openings in the pipes may be formed by drilling holes. therein in the conventional manner or by drilling-said holes at adistinctangle to theradius, as shown at e in Fig. 5, for a. purpose to be presently explained.

In order to. prevent condensed. water inthe air stream from being discharged through said pipes ontothe. rolls, I prefer. tofit said pipes with nipples F which. extendi-nwardly thereinto a:sub-- stantial distance, and. preferably beyond: theaxes of. the pipes. These-nipples are each formed with a discharge opening I, which at its rear tapers outwardly in-conical form, as shown at ,f.. The tapered opening in. the nipple functions to concentrate the pressure within thev pipes-E into the smalldischarge' opening. 1, thereby gaining the advantage of effective impinging streamswith a comparatively low-pressure of air' in. the tubes.

. The nipples F may be formed from rivet-like blanks which may be soldered in the tube, as shown at F, thus providing a tube with no sharp protuberances upon which the articles being ironed or the coverings for the rolls may catch when it becomes necessary to recover the roll. An alternative form of nipple is shown at F in in Fig. 4, wherein the construction is substantially the same as that at F in Fig. 3 excepting that the nipple has no head and the outer end thereof lies flush with the exterior surface of the pipe. The nipples F may be held within the pipe by being force-fitted therein or by being first force-fitted and then soldered around the engaging edge F. In view of the disposition of the nipples within. the pipes, as shown in Figs. 8 and. i, and the location of the openings e in the pipe shown in Fig. 5, it will be apparent that any condensation water in the air stream will settle in the bottom of the pipe and will not be discharged through the openings e and f in the pipe onto the rolls.

The pipes E are supplied with airunder' pressure through the depending: pipes E which are carried by a manifold E which. is supplied with air under pressure from. any suitable source. Preferably there is a, manifold E? anddepending pipes E extending along each side of the machine; thereby providing a suitable support for the pipes E and insuring substantial. uniform pressure throughout the length ofsaid pipes and a suitable clearance between. said pipes E and the rolls.

In practice I have found. thatthe tendency for adhesion of the articles being ironed to the first roll is. considerably greater than that to the succeeding rolls, which is primarily due to the greater amount of moisture retained in the article after passing under the first roll. To effectively disengage the. articles from the first roll I therefore propose to have the discharge openings in the pipes more closely spaced together than are the openings in the pipes at: the rear of the succeeding rolls, as best shown in Fig. 2. In doing this, however, I also find that the openings in the closely spaced nozzles need not be as large as those in the: less closely spaced openings.

From aconsideration of the invention as above described, it will be apparent that by blowing jetsor streams of air which is preferably preheated, against the rolls in the manner set forth, not alonewill said air jets function to eifectively disengage the articles being ironed from the rolls and promote their proper feeding through the succeeding rolls; but, as before stated, they will also function to increase the moisture evaporation fromthe articles being ironed and will dissipate the moisture from the rolls, thereby expediting the drying operation, from which it will be obvious that a battery of fewer rolls will accomplish the same effects as is now accomplished by a greater number of rolls. The air jets will also maintain the canvas covering on the rolls in clean condition, thereby prolonging thelife thereof, and will maintain the articles be ing ironed free from: objectionable markings and adherence of particles of foreign matter. It Will also be apparent that with my present improvements wherein all mechanical means in contact with either the rolls or with the steam chest for effecting disengagement of articles from the rolls having been dispensed'with, all the objectionable features attendant thereto are thus eliminated. And also, by their elimination, the time formerly lost in making the various adjustments and repairs: to such' devices, and in recovering the lbii through rolls of a machine equipped with such devices, will now be saved.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention and certain details of elements to be used in conjunction therewith, it is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the details of construction disclosed, since it will be apparent to anyone skilled in the art that modifications of said construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A laundering ironer or the like, comprising a plurality of parallel spaced apart rolls, a steam chest having pressing surfaces cooperating with said rolls, and pipes disposed in spaced parallel relation to the rear of the rolls, said pipes having longitudinally spaced openings directed downwardly and tangentially toward the rolls and which air under pressure is directed against the rear of the rolls, said openings being formed in nipples carried by the pipes and disposed above the lowermost portion of the pipes, and said nipples extending into the pipes a substantial distance beyond the inner wall thereof. 2. A laundering ironer or the like, comprising a plurality of spaced apart rolls, surfaces cooperating with said rolls, and pipes disposed in spaced relation to the rear of the rolls, said pipes having longitudinally spaced openings directed downwardly and tangentially toward the rolls and through which air under pressure is directed against the rear of the rolls, said openings being formed in nipples carried by the pipes, and said nipples extending into the pipes beyond the axes thereof.

MAX TROY. 

